We are pleased to share a brief report on our project activities in Cyprus from 6 to 13 May 2025. The STONE-MASTERS project co-organised an intensive, week-long, international programme of study and research in epigraphy, titled “Agency, Authorship, and Appearance: The AAA Programme in the Epigraphy of Cyprus”.
Six members of our team — Paweł Nowakowski, Marina Bastero Acha, Lorena Pérez Yarza, Andrés Rea, Julia Borczyńska and Timo Eichhorn — collaborated with the ERC GRAPH-EAST project, which is represented by Estelle Ingrand-Varenne (PI, CNRS-CESCM, University of Poitiers), Savvas Mavromatidis (University of Cyprus) and Michalis Olympios (University of Cyprus), as well as with colleagues from other universities and institutions. Ida Toth (Oxford University), Tassos Papacostas (King’s College London), Panayiotis Panayides (Department of Antiquities, Cyprus), Efthymios Rizos (Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports, Ephorate of Antiquities of Serres/Open University of Cyprus), Jacob Ashkenazi (Kinneret College), Dionysios Stathakopoulos (University of Cyprus) and Georgios Deligiannakis (Open University of Cyprus). Mia Trentin (The Cyprus Institute), Maria Parani (University of Cyprus) and Andreas Rhoby (Austrian Academy of Sciences) also advised on the planning of the programme.
The following doctoral students and postdocs participated in our work: Amal Azzi (University of Poitiers); Drusilla Firindelli (University of Bologna); Zoë Forbes (Durham University alumna); Deniz Sever Georgousakis (Koç University); Emmanouil Tsikourakis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens); and Nathan Websdale (Oxford University). Over the course of eight days, our group travelled across Cyprus to explore its extensive epigraphical collections. These collections are invaluable for studying the evolution of scripts and epigraphical genres, as well as the continuity or discontinuity of cultural patterns in Greek and Latin epigraphy from the Hellenistic to the post-Byzantine periods. After an assembly day and a preliminary organisational meeting on Tuesday 6 May, we visited the collections at the Byzantine Museum and the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia the following day. A particularly insightful study opportunity was our visit to the Cyprus Museum’s epigraphy room, which showcases the various writing systems present in Cypriot epigraphy (more on this in a separate post). On Thursday 8 May, we travelled to Paphos to examine the letter shapes in the mosaics at the Archaeological Park, particularly in the House of Aion and the House of Dionysus. In the afternoon, we visited the Chrysopolitissa Basilica and the Neophytos Monastery, where we saw pilgrim inscriptions, graffiti, and painted signatures, including those of Theodore Apsevdis. On Friday 9 May, the fourth day of the trip, the group headed to Limassol and Kourion. First, we examined a significant collection of Lusignan epitaphs at the Cyprus Medieval Museum (Limassol Castle). Then, at the Local Archaeological Museum in Kourion, Episkopi, we viewed the Hellenistic and Roman inscriptions, which are mainly associated with the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. The museum’s Responsible Officer, Ms Elena Stylianou, kindly welcomed our group and gave us a guided tour, telling us the story of the building, which served as the headquarters for George McFadden’s archaeological expedition. In the afternoon, we viewed the mosaics at the House of Eustolios in Kourion, comparing them with the work of the mosaicists in Paphos. On the way back to Nicosia, we stopped at Kolossi Castle to see the medieval painted inscriptions on its walls. Over the next two days (Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 May), we visited five churches on the UNESCO list in the Troodos Mountains: Panagia tou Araka in Lagoudhera, Saint Nicholas of the Roof in Kakopetria, Archangel Michael in Pedoulas, Panagia tou Moutoulla in Moutoullas, John Lampadistes in Kalopanayiotis, and Panagia of Asinou (Phorviotissa) in Nikitari. These churches provided ample material for analysing artists’ signatures and pilgrim graffiti. At the Museum of the Kykkos Monastery, we saw inscribed portable objects.
The rest of the programme consisted of individual research and a summary meeting. This gave us the opportunity to review the materials and experiences we had gathered, and to make observations on various aspects of agency, authorship and appearance in the collections we had visited. A more detailed report on the programme will be available in the coming months. For now, we can say that the workshop provided an invaluable opportunity to study hundreds of inscriptions in situ and trace changes in letter shapes over time. The numerous examples of different shapes within a single inscription confirmed that variety was the norm rather than the exception. Conversely, continuity was also evident across different writing techniques and supports. Characteristic elongations and dashes in alpha, flattened loops of phi, drop-shaped omicrons and thetas, and slender epsilons testified to regionally distinct styles. Focusing on agency emphasised the importance of dialogue between donors, supervisors and artisans in determining the final form of inscriptions, as well as the growing tendency to sign work intentionally to manifest agency. Signatures belonging to Theodore Apsevdis, an unnamed painter in the Church of Nicholas of the Roof in Kakopetria, mosaicists (including a psephodotes in Paphos), and innumerable individual pilgrims were found, as seen in the ubiquitous graffiti, including that of the nineteenth-century monk and traveller Vasil Grigorovich Barsky.
The STONE-MASTERS group would like to thank all the participants for their dedication, knowledge and skills, which they contributed to the programme. Your contribution was invaluable in making the event possible. We would also like to thank the Τμήμα Αρχαιοτήτων Κύπρου/ Department of Antiquities Cyprus and other institutions for granting us permission to visit these sites, and thank the staff at each location for their warm welcome. Photos by Amal Azzi, Marina Bastero Acha, Pawel Nowakowski, and Nathan Websdale.
